Planning your placement year

It's worth checking through the BU Placements Policy (find this under Placements on the Important information page) to make sure you understand the process fully, but the main things to be aware of are:

1. A placement year is defined as a period of 'no less than 30 weeks' although your faculty will advise of you of any specific requirements for your course
2. You are responsible for finding your placement (although faculty Placement Coordinators and the careers team are there to help!) and it should relate to your course
3. You may be able to split your placement across different employers or with the same employer but in different roles
4. Optional placements must be secured - and approved by your faculty - by a date specific to your course, otherwise you will normally progress with your studies.

The best starting point is to book an appointment with your faculty Placement Coordinator. They can help you work out the options that will work best for your circumstances and current experience, as well as tell you about any funding that might be available to support you. It's also worth checking out the eligibility criteria of our Placement Opportunity Fund as that can help with expenses for things like interviews, travel and DBS checks.

Your faculty and the CareersBU Team are continually developing strong networks with local, national and international businesses to provide you with access to a range of employers to approach for your placement. All placement opportunities are available on MyCareerHub, where you can also find dates for workshops and resources for help with writing applications and your CV, as well as interview techniques and free psychometric tests.

You can look for a placement anywhere, and we encourage you to do so! University is the perfect time to embark on an international experience and our Global team can help you plan, organise and apply for available funding. Visit the work overseas page to find out more and where you can meet the team.

Find out about other international opportunities available to you.

Give yourself time to research and prepare for your placement. It's usually a good idea to start planning your placement 12 to 18 months before your placement is due to start, but that isn't essential if you've only decided now that a placement experience is for you! You’ll find some really helpful planning guidance in the Find a placement section of our website and on MyCareerHub to get you started.

It’s important to discuss your ideas with academic staff on your course and your faculty Placement Coordinator, as you plan. They will need to make sure that your placement will meet the needs of your course and learning outcomes, and that the employer will be able to provide the support you need.

You will need to pay a discounted tuition fee while you are on placement, which you can borrow from Student Finance England (SFE) if you're eligible for the funding support from them. Depending on your course, you will usually do this in mid/late August, when you are asked to re-register for the next year of your course. If you do not secure a placement, you will enrol on the final year of your studies, and be required to pay the full tuition fee for the new academic year, as usual.

We'll continue to support you in lots of ways once you're on placement. You'll be assigned a Placement Development Adviser who will work with you during your placement. You'll receive regular update emails about what's happening at BU and with advice on making the most of your placement all of the support services you're used to accessing are still available to you, with options for appointments to take place by phone or video call in most cases. And of course, you can continue to access your Brightspace pages with all of the placement information specific to your course. 

Find out more about the support during your placement online.